Expired Listing Help! Why Your House Didn't Sell.

Did you have your home listed for sale only to end up without a buyer when the listing expired? Don't be discouraged, this is a challenging market and selling a home in the St. Louis area is quite competitive.

Hopefully this report will help you determine the reasons why your home may not have sold and also help guide you and direct you with what to do now to get your home sold.

Let's start with some of the common reasons for a home not selling:

Price

We might as well start with one of the more sensitive subjects for sellers, the price of their home. It is common for sellers, even in challenging markets such as the current St. Louis market, to have an unrealistic opinion of the value of their home. Sellers have to realize the way a buyer sees their home is different than how they see their own. The seller typically sees their home as the palace they are offering at a great price in great condition and the buyer sees it as a house that is not decorated the way they like, needs some improvement and is over-priced. If you house was shown to several prospective purchasers then the price was probably too high since, even if there are extenuating circumstances that can prevent a home from selling (backing to a highway, out-dated kitchen, poor housekeeping) these will all overcome with price. On the other hand, if you did not have many showings, price may once again be the culprit as buyers weren't even willing to look at your home, however it could also be many other things such as poor or ineffective marketing, weak "representation" or some of the other areas discussed in this report.

So what do you do to make sure your home is priced correctly and appropriately for the current market the next time you list?

Marketing - Exposure - Representation

There are a lot of ways to describe this but basically what we are talking about here is getting your home exposed to as many consumers that may be intersted int it as possible, to make sure the home is "represented" properly and that potential buyers have easy access to all the information that may help "sell them" on seeing your home. If you last agent was, well there is no nice way to put it, so we'll just say it, a "real estate dinosaur" and has not stayed up to date with technology, social media, internet marketing, etc, then the sale of your home probably suffered as a result. Consider these facts from teh National Association of REALTORS®:

What to look for in an agent to avoid the "real estate dinosaur":

Appearance and condition

When it comes to evaluating the condition of your home and it's suitability to be marketed in that condition, remember "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Many homeowners not only don't see the flaws that others may see in their homes, but many times can "justify-away" deficiencies or negative aspects of their homes. This is understandable as, to many of us, our houses are much more than just a house, they are a home. We have many wonderful memories of family and friends in the home, and may have a hard time taking an objective look at our home's condition to determine what needs to be done to prepare their home for sale. This is another area where an objective opinion would be a big help. If you home was shown several times during the listing period then this may be another reason it didn't sell.

What to do to address condition and other defects

Access and Accomodation

If the buyer can't see it they are NOT going to buy it! Sounds simple, right? Well, many times sellers underestimate the effect that not making their home available for showing whenever requested has on the agents success with selling the home.

The answer to this issue is simple:

Don't take it personal, no one said your kid was ugly.

If you had one or more offers on your house while it was listed but could not come to an agreement with the buyer, then it's probably worth reviewing the deals and trying to determine what kept you from reach a deal. Most sellers are emotionally attached to their homes and many times this causes some emotional, and even irrational, reactions to offers from buyers which impedes the chances of coming to terms.

To keep from blowing the deal during negotiations try these things:

But they were "pre-approved" for financing

While your home was listed if you had it sold one of more times only to lose the deal weeks down the road when the buyer was unable to obtain their financing then you may have one of a couple of problems. One, your house may be over-priced and therefore instead of attracting qualified buyers, the only people willing to pay the price are people that know it's a long shot that they will be approved for a loan so they tend not to be as savvy of a negotiator. Or, your agent may not have done enough to try to assure that the buyer was qualified, or relied too much on a pre-approval letter.

To avoid a repeat of this:

We can do it!
We often work with sellers that had their listing expire with another company. We know what to do to fix the image and perception of your home and keep it from being considered "market-worn" or stale. Also, we don't like to brag, but we are second to none when it comes to marketing your home!
No "Real Estate Dinosaurs" Here!
MORE REALTORS
Phone (314) 414-6000
Email: Info@MO-RE.com
www.MO-RE.com